Earlier this year, debut author Robert Galbraith earned "fawning praise" for his crime novel, The Cuckoo's Calling. Despite the rave reviews, it didn't do very well, shifting only 1,500 copies. But something can be done about that, because the real author is none other than JK Rowling, the world's most successful writer. The revelation of… READ THE REST

Nell_Anvoid
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2013-07-15T12:41:11Z —
#2

Interesting.....as the saying goes.

I liked the Potter books for the emotion and inventiveness of the stories. Rowling proved she has a knack for spinning tales. Her writing, on the other hand, was clunky, confusing, and downright hard to follow in many places....though she improved noticeably as the series went on. She wrecked the exposition with adverbs throughout...to a ludicrous level in some places. But the story lines and character arcs were very good overall.

The Casual Vacancy was a total dud for me. The writing seemed almost as bad as her early Potter efforts, and the story was just plain boring. One of those books with little to recommend. I might have been projecting my distaste for her sophomoric writing style...but I really expected some clever storylines. She seemed out to prove that she's a true "writer" and forgot her real strength in story-telling. There's a good reason it got universally panned.

Perhaps now she's back to form with story telling.

lt_nemo
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2013-07-15T13:32:45Z —
#3

As soon as I heard, I went to my local bookstore and picked up the last copy of The Cuckoo's Calling. I did this because 1. I like Harry Potter 2. I like crime fiction 3. I am a shameless bandwagon jumper.

I do not regret my purchase. The book is very well written hardboiled crime. Also, I now own a rare copy of the first printing. Wooo!

SteampunkBanana
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2013-07-15T13:46:01Z —
#4

Great job blowing her cover everyone. Now she needs to move on to another pen name, and soon another, eventually leading to entire bookstores filled with books only written by Rowling.

alteregos_alter
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2013-07-15T13:53:07Z —
#5

Does it have Hermione in it? If no, I'm not interested.

All right, maybe Luna will be enough.

Pretty please?

ChaunceyS
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2013-07-15T14:21:35Z —
#6

Considering she has oodles of money, I probably would've kept that feather in my cap. Eventually having someone leak that it is me, and then neither confirming nor denying, for the fun of it all.

User100
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2013-07-15T14:34:15Z —
#7

beschizza said:

Despite the rave reviews, it didn't do very well, shifting only 1,500 copies. But something can be done about that[...]

Do you really think she cares about selling a few more books? (And 1,500 hardcover sales for a new author is actually pretty good.)

She's got all the money and fame she could ask for — what she was obviously looking for were unbiased reviews of her post-Potter writing. That she definitely got, and she's probably pretty happy with the outcome (independently of whether she made a few more millions or not).

beschizza
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2013-07-15T15:10:16Z —
#8

She might not be bothered, but her publisher sure is.

GilbertWham
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2013-07-15T15:20:55Z —
#9

Aye, rights. There's the crux. Though I'd be surprised if anyone were displeased by a few extra millions.

knoxblox
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2013-07-15T16:17:48Z —
#10

Well, if you were paranoid about banks, stashing a few extra millions might prove frustrating.

Rob Cockerham says: "A gal named Brittany was so impressed with the "How much is Inside a Million Dollars?" article from 2005 that she withdrew 10,000 ones from her bank to better simulate the $1,000,000 experience.

LurkingGrue
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2013-07-15T16:58:14Z —
#11

The Casual Vacancy was horrible. It was almost a cleche attempt at being "Adult" without any characters I wanted to spend time with.

After that experience I don't want to give her another chance.

LurkingGrue
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2013-07-15T18:05:59Z —
#13

She wrecked the exposition with adverbs throughout

When she used phrases like "Mr. Dursley, however, had a perfectly normal, owl-free morning." she was trying to be P.G. Wodehouse. There was quite a lot of Terry Pratchett influence.

Brainspore
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2013-07-15T19:23:49Z —
#14

SteampunkBanana said:

Great job blowing her cover everyone.

The polyjuice potion was bound to wear off eventually.

ghostly1
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2013-07-15T21:21:01Z —
#15

This Robert Galbraith fellow should co-author a book with Richard Bachman.

brucearthurs
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2013-07-16T00:24:01Z —
#16

That won't happen. Bookstores are already filled with books only written by James Patterson.

beschizza
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2013-07-20T12:18:23Z —
#17

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